New Kent graduate to take humanitarian studies abroad

A New Kent High School alumus is asking hometown community members for support in a quest to take her humanitarian studies abroad.

Carrie Daniel, a 2011 graduate from New Kent and current junior at the University of Virginia, recently received an offer to travel to Nairobi, Kenya, in Africa, to improve the lives of girls.

“I will be volunteering at a tuition free school in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa,” said Daniel.

Daniel is a current double-major in foreign affairs and women, gender, and sexuality studies. She has worked with several organizations throughout the United States, but hopes to take her focus and drive to other countries.

“This summer, I am hoping to work at the Kibera School for Girls in order to improve the girls’ access to quality education,” continued the New Kent grad.

Daniel’s overseas program include issues to combat inter-generational cycles of poverty and gender equality in Nairobi, offering free schools for girls as well as community-wide services that address the local deficits in health care, education, sanitation, nutrition, and computer literacy. The program demonstrates that educating women benefits an entire community through cultivating an ethos that allows respectibility for women in society.

Daniel’s journey will cover one month from mid-June to mid-July, with focus on academic tutoring and mentoring at the Summer Institute of the Kibera School. She hopes the impact she makes will help take young girls out of dangerous situations and place them in an environment to help them learn, grow, and flourish.

But even Daniel knows she can’t do it on her own. And she is hoping the community can do whatever it can to help her on her journey.

“My biggest challenge is going to be funding for my trip,” she said. “I have created a crowdfunding platform in hopes that I will receive support from my community.”

The UVA junior says that she plans to thank those who help with her journey and provide support to her.

“It is just a good feeling knowing that there will be those out there to help support me during my trip and I want to show New Kent that I’m not doing it only for me, but to represent my hometown as well.”

To donate to Daniel’s cause, visit www.gofundme.com/buildstronggirls.